July is upon us and this weekend also brings on the month’s Full Moon! This full BUCK MOON is when male deer begin to grow their antlers and here in Houston will be full on July 3 at 6:38 a.m.--but look for a shining disc Sunday night and Monday night!
This is also known as the Thunder Moon (which we are likely to get a bit of the first week of the month) and you may notice on the graphic that this is a Super Moon meaning it’s relatively close in orbit to the Earth and will appear 16% brighter than other moons. However, this is the first of FOUR full Super Moons in a row!
To be sure, August actually has two FULL Super moons this year, the second of which is known as a Blue Moon. Having two full moons in a single month gets the second one that name--has nothing to do with the color blue--but since this happens every couple of years the phrase “once in a blue moon” does make sense! August Full Super Moons occur on August 1st and 30th and the second one is the closest of all of them making it the “superest”! September comes in with a full Super Moon the morning of the 29. You can read a great article about these moons on the Earthsky.org website.
This first week of July clearly takes us to the big celebration on July 4 and while it looks like a hot weekend, there is a “cooling” trend with some chance of rain:
The month itself can be extremely hot and rather cool. You may recall when the fireworks were canceled because of heavy rain on July 4, 2018.
We can hope for a 66°, but it’s not likely. The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting above average temperatures and above average rainfall, which we could use:
Have a safe weekend and a Happy 4th of July! I’ll see you next week!
Frank
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